1880CC VAM 4 GSA COA

I am thinking of purchasing a 1880/79CC REV of 78 (VAM 4) $1 in a GSA holder. The coin does not come with the box and COA. I have seen where you can purchase just the box and COA. My questions are: Does the COA contain information about die varieties or VAM's? Was there documentation provided with the coin explaining these varieties by the GSA when these 1880CC's were originally put up for sale? Thanks.

Hi Gsmick, And welcome aboard. There are two card that are in the 1880-CC GSA dollar that i am aware of. They do not list VAM's but the do mention the 1880/79 overdate. I was lucky enough to get one that is 1880/79-CC rev. of 78 in a GSA holder myself. It is a nice variety to have.

Loosechange

cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&i...geName=STRK:MEWAX:IT

Above is the link to the COA that I was looking at. It looks to me like the document on the right is a basic 1880CC COA. And the document on the left is one that they issued with the "SILVER DOLLAR" GSA coin (these were heavily bag marked) . They are so hard to read (blurry). What do you think?

It does not look like that either of those inserts is the variety issue. I don't think VAMs were developed as a collecting method at the time of the sale. VAM numbers wont be mentioned on any of those cards. Regardless, a VAM 4 is a VAM 4.

Gsmick,

The two cards listed by this eBay seller don't really have any connection to one another.

The smaller card displayed on the left in the eBay listing is from a group of GSA silver dollars that GSA employees determined did not qualify for the UNCIRCULATED category. The silver dollars in this group might have had excessive bagmarks, toning, or other perceived imperfections that caused GSA employees to downgrade them into a second-tier category.

These GSA employees were not numismatists and did not have the skills required to accurately access the silver dollars' condition ratings. NGC has assigned high grades (MS-64, MS-65, MS-66, and even MS-67) to many of these so-called Non-Uncirculated silver dollars. (Please see image of one of these IMPORTANT GSA cards below.)


The GSA card displayed on the right in the eBay listing is a standard one issued for 1880-CC silver dollars that did meet the GSA employees' requirements for Uncirculated silver dollars. Like I said, the two cards offered in this eBay listing have no connection to one another. (Please see image below for an example of a standard 1880-CC GSA card.)

The cards that the GSA issued with the IMPORTANT cards were more generic in appearance, as pictured in the image below:

What I think you were looking for was a GSA card that said something about the different varieties for the 1880-CC silver dollars. While the Van Allen-Mallis system had just been introduced in the team's book in 1971(although Leroy Van Allen had already written a book on silver dollar varieties, and George Mallis had issued his pamphlet, List of Die Varieties of Morgan Head Silver Dollars), the GSA did not refer to it by name. But it did issue a card, as pictured below, explaining that different varieties for this date existed.

I hope this helps, and I hope Mitchell Yee joins in on this thread to add more clarification to the subject.

We're glad to see you participating on this discussion board Gsmick.

Rusty

Thanks Rusty. I really appreciate your efforts and time in giving me the information I was looking for. Very complete and informative. I can now make a knowledgeable purchase of the documents I want for my collection.

Thanks again, Glenn